Mom I have to research the family

[Burrow Digger]

Just out of curiosity, I'm waiting for the day my son comes from school and says, "Mom I have to do my family tree with 4 generations. And I have to ask them questions about what life was like last century".

How would all you genealogists respond?

Would you respond by printing out the entire family tree of 100 pages and saying, Here you are.  

Or do tell your son to tell the teacher, my mother did all that, theres nothing for me to do.

Or anything else you can think of?

BD

[Jaki]

Actually had my great niece come home from school a few months back with that exact thing to do.

Gave her the basic information, names and dates, and let her draw up the tree .... and was told by her mother .... my niece .... you started researching at the right time.

Now my great niece likes hearing what new stuff i find.

Jaki

[Arranroots]

The first part of the task is the research: learning to ask the right questions, of the right people to extract the information you need.

The second part is empathy.  Schools place increasing emphasis these days on discovering what it was like for others at given times in history.  Children are encouraged to imagine "what it was like" and first hand accounts from relatives have a much greater importance for the child than anything heard at school.  (Of course you have to hope Grandad doesn't embellish TOO MUCH!!) 

Then there is the act of presenting the information: choosing a format that suits the child's personality.  Can they draw?  do they like writing?  would they prefer to use a computer?

As always the adult's role is to support and encourage - much harder than doing it for them, as we all know, when we consider ourselves minor experts!!

I have an "autobiography" that I was asked to do at school when I was ten.  One of the best things I ever did - and look what it led to!!

Arranroots

(You're sorry you asked now, aren't you?  )

[Siouxzie]

When my 9 year old had to do a family tree for a school project.  I am afraid I just used it as an excuse for blatant showing off!

[YukonHall]

We lied - it was 12 years ago and she had to do a paper on How her ancestors ended up in the Yukon.  She wanted to involve the "Underground railway" and our Black ancestor (a sailor who had a - hum - passing relationship with great granny in London).

 It was a fabulous piece of fiction - runaway slaves, black cowboys, sailing ships to London and back to the Prairies - maybe I should write the Book one day!

 She had to give a presentation to her class mates and their parents - there were a lot of drop jawed looks that day and her teacher thought it was "Interesting" - she even had Pictures, photocopied from books to illustrate it - she passed them off as relatives!

 
Frances

[Valslater]

Wish the schools had done this when I was there!  Tis a good way to find out about history as it puts a more personal perspective on things. 

However in response to the kids of today doing a tree, my next door neighbours grandson had to do so last year (he is 7 I think).  Poor devil only ended up with a type of "ground cover" 

He is the result of a 2nd marriage for his father and a 3rd relationship for his mother.   His maternal grandmother has been married twice so had his her 2nd husband.  Between them they have 10 children and most of them have been in more than one relationship or another.  Then to cap it off his maternal grandmother was adopted!!!! 

So I guess his generation has plenty of searching to do to secure their ancestory

[Rod In Sussex]

I used to ask about the last century when I was young. In those days I was thinking about pre 1900 when Victoria was Queen!

Rod

[alllegs]

As a trainee teacher I have to do a presentation next week on History in the National Curriculum and why it is important for children to be able to relate historical events to their own lives......I can't wait to qualify and get my class researching their family trees and to find out how things in history have affected their lives and their own identities...

Bring it on!!

Legs
xxxx